Greg Hinz On Politics

Durbin pushes new gun controls, but calls for help

Illinois' senior U.S. senator senses that something has changed in the gun-control fight since last weekend's mass shooting in Las Vegas.

But progressives and liberals are going to have to step up their game to match the fervor on the political right, if they want to prevail, he says.

At a Chicago news conference today, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pushed new legislation to close the so-called gun-show loophole, which allows the sale of firearms purchased at shows to proceed after a 72-hour delay even if authorities have not completed a background check of the purchaser. He also lauded a plan sponsored with U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Deerfield, to toughen storage rules so guns do not fall into the wrong hands.

The senator says he knows that the National Rifle Association opposes such steps and has lots of power. "They went after me once," he said, when he was a congressman from central Illinois. "They almost got me."

Now, pro-control forces have to engage as single-issue gun voters on the political right do, but they have to do something else: reach out, Durbin said. "We need responsible sportsmen and hunters from throughout the country to join us in conversation."

As Durbin spoke , a new poll out today provided some backing for his view.

According to a Morning Consult survey conducted for Politico, 64 percent of voters nationally now back stronger gun-control laws, with 29 percent against. That's up from 61/33 before the Las Vegas incident. A whopping 84 percent back the gun-show provision.

On the other hand, the survey found, voters are pretty much split on which party they trust on the subject of guns, with 39 percent saying Democrats and 38 percent Republicans.

The findings are consistent with spikes in support for gun control found by other polls after earlier incidents. But, with time, those spikes have tended to disappear.